149 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
PLANNING AND IMPROVING THE CITY SIDEWALK 
One of the most difficult questions 
to determine — one over which there is 
a great diversity of opinion among en- 
gineers and other city officials — is the 
proper proportion between the side- 
walk and traveled roadway widths of 
any street. By sidewalk width, I 
mean the space from the gutter or 
curb line to the fence or street line, 
including in addition to the hardened 
portion of the walk, the grass strips 
on one or both sides of the walk. 
The width of roadway should be 
only -sufficient to accommodate the 
vehicular traffic which may be expect- 
ed to use it. Many cities make a 
great mistake in laying out too wide 
roadways, especially upon residential 
streets. Such errors in judgment re- 
sult in an additional burden upon the 
taxpayers for street cleaning and 
sprinkling, and the abutting property 
owner gets in return additional dust, 
noise, street excavations and all ac- 
companying discomforts. They are 
also deprived of that pleasure and 
restfulness which would be obtained 
by the use of such unnecessary road- 
way widths for additional sidewalk 
spaces with attractive greensward and 
additional opportunities for the 
growth of shrubs or graceful trees. 
In Hartford and in many American 
cities, upon residential streets, three- 
fifths of the entire width is devoted to 
roadway uses, and one-fifth upon each 
side for sidewalk purposes. Thus up- 
on a 50-foot street, a common width, 
the roadway would be 30 feet, and the 
sidewalk space upon each side, 10 
feet. Upon a large number of streets 
the roadway width could be better 25 
feet instead of 30 feet. Many cities 
admit this error and are adopting 
roadway widths from 22 to 26 feet in- 
stead of 30 feet. In Milwaukee, Minne- 
apolis, St. Louis and dozens of other 
prominent American cities, you may 
see hundreds of instances where 
the curb corners were originally 
turned into the side streets for a cer- 
tain roadway width, but later when 
these streets were curbed, the road- 
way was narrowed several feet and 
connections made with the earlier 
curb corners by reversed curves or 
converging straight curb lines. 
After determining the sidewalk 
space width, from the curb or gutter 
line to the street or fence line, the 
next question of importance to decide 
upon is the location of the hardened 
portion of the walk within this space. 
This decision will be influenced by two 
other matters — provision for the fu- 
From an address by F- L. Ford^ City Engineer of 
Hartford’t Conn., and Vice-President of the 
American Civic Association's DePt. 
of City Making. 
ture widening of the roadway and the 
location of the street trees. While it 
is of the greatest importance to avoid 
the wide roadways, it is equally im- 
portant to locate your street trees and 
sidewalks so as to provide for future 
widening at a minimum cost, if the in- 
troduction of trolley lines or similar 
improvements should require it. By 
arranging to plant your street trees 
between the fence lines and the side- 
walk, rather than between the walk 
and the curb line, you make provision 
for such future widening. At the 
same time you place the trees away 
from the ravages of horses and other 
animals, and from the injurious effect 
of impervious pavements, escaping 
gas, etc.; and where they can grow 
and develop to the best possible ad- 
vantage. 
If there is ample width, a double 
row of street trees upon each side of 
the sidewalk is especially desirable. In 
this vicinity the usual practice is to 
use only greensward and trees for 
street decorations, and I am free 
to admit that no combination of color 
or design can surpass a beautiful vel- 
vety lawn, arched over with graceful 
trees properly spaced and systemati- 
cally developed. 
There is, however, another plan of 
street decoration which is followed in 
some cities. In Rochester and in St. 
Louis, they have associations com- 
posed of the residents or property 
owners on certain streets, banded to- 
gether for the care and improvement 
of their streets. These associations 
employ their own men who care for 
the lawns, plant shrubbery, remove the 
ashes and rubbish from the houses, 
and in St. Louis, especially, police and 
light their streets. At the end of 
each year, the property owners are as- 
sessed pro rata for the cost of this 
work On one street m Rochester 
where the trees are planted well back 
of the sidewalk, the space between 
the walk and curb is planted full of a 
great variety of hardy shrubs. The 
effect of this treatment is especially 
attractive and pleasing. On another 
street they have a centre parking 
space, with a narrow roadway on each 
side. This space is planted with beau- 
tiful magnolias, and when they are in 
the height of their beauty and attrac- 
tiveness, the residents of this street 
observe what they call “magnolia 
day,” a sort of an “at home” day when 
they receive their friends and have an 
all around good time. The street is 
further decorated at this time by the 
use of Japanese lanterns, flags, bunt- 
ing, etc. This has proved to be a 
very beautiful and popular use of 
restricted residential city streets. 
On business streets where the build- 
ings are built out to the fence line it 
is usually customary to harden or 
pave the entire width of the sidewalk 
out to the curb line. On main thor- 
oughfares, where there is much walk- 
ing, the width of the sidewalks should 
be from 8 to 12 feet; on residential 
streets, from 4 to 6 feet. My personal 
opinion is that no sidewalk of a per- 
manent character should be less than 
6 feet in width, except possibly on 
very short streets, where they are 
very little used. 
Another question of the greatest im- 
portance in the solution of this prob- 
lem, is the matter of surface drainage. 
If your town is very flat, and the wa- 
ter would naturally drain off from the 
surface in normal conditions, at a very 
slow rate, you must improve these 
conditions by artificial means. In the 
first place figure on a transverse slope 
for the hardened portion of your 
walk of from to inch to the foot; 
for the balance of the sidewalk space 
which will ordinarily be turfed, not 
less than 1 inch per foot. It will of 
course stand a slope up to one foot 
horizontal to one vertical, but I can- 
not imagine many instances where it 
will be aecessary or advantageous to 
terrace the space between the side- 
walk and gutter. 
Next give your street surfaces a 
good crown, as full as they will 
stand, so that the water which falls 
upon the street surfaces will get to 
the gutters quickly. With proper 
slopes on your sidewalk spaces and 
roadways, there should be no serious 
trouble from surface water. 
Next in importance to the speedy 
and thorough surface drainage of 
sidewalks and roadways, is the under- 
drainage problem of the sidewalks 
proper. In heavy retentive soils this 
part of the problem is very annoying 
and quite expensive. The best way to 
overcome the difficulty is by the con- 
struction of a small porous land tile 
drain laid under and parallel with the 
walk, connecting the low points of the 
drain with catch basins or sewer out- 
lets. 
The transverse slope upon your 
sidewalk surfaces is of very great im- 
portance if your town wants to avoid 
